Mark Selby won his fourth world title at the 2021 Snooker World Championships, a victory that put him on par with John Higgins. In Hyundai Snooker, Selby's world titles trail only 6 by Steve Davis, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ray Lilton, and 7 by Stephen Hendry.
Text/ Clive Everton, "Snooker Scene"
When Selby was a young man, often running out of money to pay for the stage, Malcolm Thorne, the operator of the Willy Thorne Club, valued Selby's potential and attitude and allowed him to practice for free.
At the age of 16, Selby became a professional, and by the age of 37, he had not only won four world championships, but also won three Masters and two British Championships, reaching 20 ranking titles and receiving £6,767,726 in prize money.
At its best, Selby, nicknamed the "Leicester Joker," is no less offensively capable of scoring than anyone else, and is in most cases good enough to win, even if in average form or cold hands. His character of not abandoning, not giving up and not accepting defeat has brought many epic reversals to the audience, and his stable state not only made him ranked first in the world in 2015-2019, but also ignited his hope of returning to the first place now.
Tactically, Selby is a master of rhythm control. In this year's World Championship final, Selby fell behind 3-5 in the first stage but beat Murphy 7-2 in the second stage, and "Emperor of Billiards" Hendry pointed out the key reason: "Mark Selby is like a snooker vampire, the claws are deeply embedded, sucking out all your life force and adrenaline. He's the most incredible competitor I've ever met. If I were to play with him, I would get irritated. I don't know how he did it, all of a sudden he could turn the game into the way he wanted it to be. ”
Selby was very humble in the moment of the win, saying: "I'm not going to follow the record of Hendry and O'Sullivan, they're at the top of the list of the greatest players in history in my heart, I'm not going to put myself in that segment or classify myself as the best in history. People might talk about it, but I can't believe it. ”